London - A tattooist who called himself ‘Dr Evil’ has admitted causing grievous bodily harm to three customers by carrying out a tongue-splitting procedure and removing an ear and a nipple.

Brendan McCarthy, 50, changed his pleas to guilty on Tuesday after a two-year legal saga in which he unsuccessfully claimed his clients’ consent gave him a defence.

McCarthy, from Bushbury, Wolverhampton, carried out the ear removal without anaesthetic in 2015, three years after he split a woman’s tongue with a scalpel and removed a client’s nipple. The tattooist, who was arrested following a complaint to council environmental health inspectors, denied six counts relating to the three procedures when he first appeared in court in 2017.

But the judge, Amjad Nawaz, ruled he could not use his clients’ written consent as a defence after considering precedent set in previous prosecutions, including one in which a man branded his wife’s buttocks with a hot knife.

McCarthy, who ran Dr Evil’s Body Modification Emporium in Wolverhampton, then took his case to the Court of Appeal, but it was rejected on grounds that the procedures were not comparable to tattoos or piercings.

The ruling by three judges, including the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, accepted the ear removal had been done quite well, but stated: ‘What the defendant undertook for reward, in this case, was a series of medical procedures for no medical reason.’

An online petition set up to support the ‘skilful and hygienic’ body piercer, urged members of the ‘body modification community’ to stand together, stating: ‘Please sign to show your support for Mac... Because Barbie and Ken aren’t everyone’s idea of beautiful.’

McCarthy, who was bailed on condition that he does not perform surgical procedures, will be sentenced on March 21.